It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on here – mainly owing to not having time from a combination of family and work.

As noted in the previous post, we were meant to be driving to Milford Sound and staying in Milford lodge on this day of the trip, but owing to poor weather and risks of landslide the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound remained closed. In order to get a potential head start (we had heard that the weather was improving and the road was likely to reopen the following day) we decided to book a night’s accommodation in Te Anau. Te Anau is only a couple of hours drive from Queenstown, and we’d booked an en suite unit in the Te Anau Kiwi Holiday Park, which was really comfortable. It needed to be, as it piled it down with rain all afternoon and evening, and we didn’t really feel much like going out. We did venture as far as the “Fat Duck” for some food which was excellent.

No photos of the day, but plenty to follow in the next installment, when we finally get to Milford Sound, which in summary would be delightful were it not for all the tourists!!

Having managed a good nights’ sleep in the hotel, and following rest the previous day, it was time to set out for another adventure, albeit returning to the same hotel in the evening.

Routeburn track

New Zealand is famed for its “Great Walks“. Whilst we had not really travelled prepared to do one of these multi-day hikes/”tramps”, we did want to experience some of what they are about. We therefore drove from Queenstown west then north along the shore of Lake Wakatipu up to Glenorchy. We then carried on along the gravel road to the carpark at the Glenorchy end of the Routeburn Track. From here we walked about an hour along the track across the river and through the beech forest.

Beech Forest

There is a short circular walk available here, so even though we went beyond the range of that walk, we used it to provide a different return route to the car. The scenery in this area of New Zealand, in the Mt Aspiring National Park, is primarily that of evergreen beech forest, clinging to the mountain slopes. Our hour’s walk took us upwards through this forest, across the river, and alongside mountain streams, climbing gently all the way.

Adventurous

The mountain streams here have carved out impressive gorges, and are also superb for the more adventurous to get wet in!

The Great Walks are managed by the New Zealand DoC (Department of Conservation), and as such places for overnight stays and camping can be restricted, although day access to the Routeburn is not. We were pleasantly surprised how few other walkers we met on our brief trip, and the amount of peace and quiet available even on a very famous walk.

Routeburn View

Eventually we decided that we didn’t have time to go further, and had reached a point with views out from the forest (the beech canopy is very dense and long views are hard to come by at this point), and turned back alongside the mountain river.

Routeburn stream

Lupins

Lupins

As we returned by car to Queenstown, we observed that there are a lot of beautifully coloured flowers by the side of a lot of roads in the South Island. Some investigation revealed these to be lupins (Lupinus Polyphyllus in this case), which are a non-native plant, but which have escaped into the wild in New Zealand and are very commonly to be found alongside roads. They take on a lovely range of colours through blues, purples and pinks.

Altered Plans

The next day, we had booked accommodation at Milford Lodge, which is at Milford Sound (more in later instalments). The road to Milford Sound is notorious for being closed (which we didn’t realise when we booked the accommodation – top tip to visitors is to check the road status regularly before you start your trip to the sound). We discovered during the afternoon, that the road would be closed the next day, so we needed to reorganise accommodation at short notice.

Relaxation

That evening, we decided to treat ourselves to something a little different. Having been very disappointed by the pool at our hotel, we decided to book ourselves an hour at sunset in the hot pools at Onsen Hot Pools. We booked the romantic twilight package, with candles etc. The roofs of the pools open up so on pleasant evenings, you are effectively in a private outdoor space. My tip is not to bother with the candles – they are battery powered rather than real, and by the time it was dark enough for them to take effect we had to leave anyway! However, it was a very relaxing way to spend an hour in the evening, in beautiful surrounds, about 15 mins drive from the hotel.

After such busy days and new places everyday, we had organised three whole nights in Queenstown, at the Mercure Queenstown Resort hotel. This hotel had excellent lake views, and a pretty decent restaurant and bar. However the rooms were a little shabby and worn (they looked as though they hadn’t been refurbished in quite some time), and we decided against using the outdoor pool since it didn’t look very clean. However, it was a good value stay, and the lake views were well worth it. We definitely needed a restful day (we had mild travellers’ colds, possibly caught during the cold day in Sydney), so we decided it was not a day for the car. Queenstown has a lot of things to do, although rather fewer for those looking for relaxation as opposed to jet boat rides and bungee jumping.

Birds and Gondola

New Zealand has a lot of unusual wildlife. and Queenstown has the excellent Kiwi Birdlife Park, where one can see it without having to spend nights camped in the bush.

NZ Pigeon

One is not allowed to take photos of the kiwi themselves (they are in a special nocturnal enclosure), but it was interesting to see them, and hear about their weirdness (the egg is about 1/2 the size of the female), and the fact that they seem more like hedgehogs than birds. Other highlights were seeing the rare lizard the tuatara, lots of ducks, and the yellow-headed kakariki (photo here).

Then it was time for a trip up the Queenstown gondola (the mountain cable-car type, not the Venetian type). For anyone who has been up similar affairs in Switzerland or elsewhere in the Alps, this is not a particularly dramatic ascent, although there are decent views at the top. Like everything in Queenstown, there are things for the thrill-seekers, in this case a bob-sled run.

Waterfront dinner

Evening took us gently back into town and dinner on the lakeside (the Waterfront Bar and Bistro), and some time to relax over a nice glass of local Sauv Blanc! Views were excellent, the service great, and the food truly superb. Well worth visiting if you’re passing through.

Morning light

That night, for some reason I woke up early in the morning, and instead of just rolling over as is normal, I got up for a look out of the window, and was rewarded with a fantastic light show over Lake Wakatipu. The next instalment – day 2 in Queenstown, and a trip out into the surrounding mountains for a short walk.

This was a day of travel (and we both had mild colds), but which showed how much contrast New Zealand has to offer. We woke up to more traditional West Coast weather (otherwise known as rain), and then enjoyed the excellent breakfast hospitality of Collyer House (see previous post). Our route took us over the Haast Pass (this is the lowest of the three passes across the Southern Alps) from West Coast into Otago. The other horror of the morning (other than the rain), was being attacked by sand flies whilst trying to get the pictures! The white rental car was clearly very attractive to them, and we ended up covered in the things, despite heavy use of repellent! Fortunately, they can only fly very slowly (you can walk faster than they fly), so a bit a rapid movement spared us the worst.

Into Otago

Lake Wanaka

The West Coast side of the Haast Pass predominantly runs through Beech forest, and at the watershed (the boundary between West Coast and Otago), the scenery (and weather in this case) change dramatically. The forest stops, and scrubby moorland predominates. This is a result of the southern Alps providing a barrier to rainfall on the landward side.

Driftwood on shore

Otago gets about 1/10th of the rainfall of the West Coast, and can’t support the large numbers of trees. As well as breaking away from the forest for the first time since Arthur’s Pass, we broke out into sunshine, which was accompanied by a fierce wind. The road winds along the side of Lake Wanaka, and then crosses a lower watershed to Lake Hawea. Both lakes are really stunning blues, and very large (when compared to lakes in the UK!). I think what really surprised me was the amount of driftwood on shores on these lakes, testament to the climate and also to the lack of man’s influence on the area. See also this photo on my other blog.

Lake Hawea

A Hike

Having enjoyed our drive past the lakes and stopped for a bite to eat in Wanaka township, we took a shortcut along New Zealand’s highest paved road, the Crown range road, which reaches a height of 1076m.

Queenstown

Us being us (well, me mainly) parked at the view point there, and despite the slightly threatening cloud-scape and our colds, decided to make the ascent (by foot) of the 1485m Rock Peak. This has a radar station on top of it for controllers of the aeroplanes approaching Queenstown airport. Not somewhere I’d care to land (look closely at the picture, and you’ll see the 737 on approach).

Queenstown

After returning to the hire car, it was a winding drive down to Queenstown, which was certainly the biggest and most bustling place we’d seen for a few days. We would have three days here to recover from the non-stop changes of location, and to explore the local area (and do some laundry). More of that in the next instalment.

Segment six of our trip saw us wake up in our Hutel in Okarito in lovely sunshine (apparently quite a rarity on the “Wet Coast”. The rainfall totals in this part of NZ really put the UK to shame!). Our drive would take us just over 100 miles along this sparsely populated coastal area, past rainforests, glaciers, and wonderful coves, to Haast, and beyond to Collyer House. First stop was the rather lovely Continental bakery at the far end of the township of Franz Josef (This is where one of the two famous West Coast glaciers can be found).

Fox Glacier

Being as we are, we decided that the majority of tourists would stop at the first of the two glaciers, and we should therefore head onwards to Fox Glacier, where it might be a bit quieter. These two glaciers are very unusual, both in that they reach down to only 300m above sea level (within the rainforest), and also that they are advancing, when most world glaciers are in retreat. The car park is reached up a short spur off the main highway (6), which ends with gravel. There is then a twenty-minute hike across the moraine and gravel areas between the car park and the end of the glacier. There is a high-risk of rockfalls in this area, so obey the signs, and do not venture onto the ice without a guide. You can get pretty close (about 200m) without, which is free, and is a very enjoyable trip.

Once back at the car, it was onward along the Coast Road. Our guidebook had suggested a good spot for a break was a lay-by that would allow you to take the c. 30 minute hike down through the rainforest to Monro beach, where (at the right time of year) penguins can be found, and which is a beautiful location at any time of year.

Monro Beach

The walk was pretty quiet (only a few other similarly 20s-30s, middle-class, couple-types (NZ seems to be full of them) down through the forest, and it wasn’t so steep that we worried about the clamber back up. On reaching the beach, we found stones, beautiful blue pacific surf, a lovely bay, rocks out in the bay, and a complete absence of penguins (we must have just missed them, based on the signs out).

View from the coast road

Just up the coast, there is a lovely viewpoint (Knight’s point),

Knight’s point view

named for the dog of the foreman in charge of the road construction, and several other lesser viewpoints. This one is famed, since there is a meeting of currents, and on quite a few occasions throughout the year (not the day we were there) one can see whales and other large sea-mammals feeding in the waters below the road. The views are good without the whales too though.

The West Coast is a truly stunning place, and is (for a busy European) very empty. You can easily drive 60km or more between settlements, and each of those might only have 350 people. You do tend to see the same people / cars / Jucy vans at every guide-book location however! Finally we came to Haast, and turned off the main route 6 road, to head down the road towards (but not all the way to) Jackson Bay (we would later return to Haast for a beautiful fish and chips at the Hard Antler (next door to a shop selling New Zealand jade and other interesting lumps of rock)), to our B&B for the night at the delightful Collyer House. Run by the lovely Neroli Nolan (just about everyone within a couple of miles is a Nolan!), who is an excellent photographer and equally excellent hostess, the special place is close to the ocean, with wonderful views.

Collyer House

Breakfast is also very good, and we enjoyed talking with Neroli and the other guest (who had just come down from one of the great walks the day before) about travels and life in NZ. Needless to say the others’ stories were slightly more exciting than ours (such things as being left stranded by a broken down bus in the middle of the night in Vietnam etc!). But a lovely convivial morning it was, and we certainly didn’t start the next day’s journey as early as we had thought we might! The rooms at Collyer house are stunningly appointed, and contain antique British furniture in many places (ask Neroli about that!), and it was a very comfortable place to stay; we wish we’d booked it for more than just one night.

The next day of our adventure sees us drive from Arthur’s Pass, to the tiny settlement of Okarito (population 30). Along the way we took a variety of scenic detours: a walk in the Otira Valley, an excursion to the shores of Lake Brunner, and a view of the amazing Hokitika Gorge, all rounded off with a lovely sunset on the west coast. The driving was primarily on beautiful, quiet roads, although there were a few holdups at the single lane bridges which New Zealand is famous for, including one which is shared with the railway line!

Otira Valley

Otira Valley

The Otira valley walk is about 45 minutes each way along a fairly easy path from a laybay just up the hill from Arthur’s Pass village, taking you to excellent views of the surrounding mountains, always with the noise of the river running in the background. The DoC information suggests it’s easy to get to the bridge; we didn’t quite make it that far, turning back when it became necessary to get wet / scramble across the foliage. Still, the bridge was in sight, so pretty close. We spent about 90 minutes on the walk in total, and didn’t meet another soul. A lovely morning stroll. One of the things that was interesting to us northern Europeans, was the differences in all the plants along the path – which looked so alien to us, on this our first day in NZ.

Lake Brunner

Reaching this stunning like (near Moana), means driving along a back-road

Arnold River

(fully sealed) from the Route 73 to Route 6 (the coast road), reached by turning off to the right, not long after the summit of the Pass. The stunning Arnold river (crossed on foot by the wobbly bridge in the photograph) provides the outflow from the lake, which contains freshwater mussels (amongst other things). We stopped here in the hot sunshine for a gentle (and short stroll) before heading onward through the large town of Greymouth towards Hokitika for lunch.

Hokitika Gorge

Hokitika Gorge

This is one of those sights that photography just cannot do justice – the blue colour is truly stunning. This colour is the product of how the water gets to the river, being glacial water. All the tiny bits of rock ground off by the glacier (known as glacial flour), are suspended in the water, and the minerals in these tiny bits of rock give the vivid blue colour.

The road to the gorge from Hokitika is an intriguing drive – dead straight for miles, with right angle bends interspersed as it goes around the odd field that the owner decided they didn’t want the road to go through. The last few hundred metres are unsealed, but easy driving. The walk down to the gorge, which includes a lovely bridge over the river, is very easy going. Warning: do not attempt without good strength sand-fly repellent; these little beasties will bite you to within an inch of your life! (for Brits – they are like Scottish midges, but worse!). We were fortunate to meet some locals coming the other way who clearly guessed that we were unprepared, and shared their repellent!

Okarito

After Hokitika Gorge, it was back to Hokitika village to fill up on some supplies

Okarito

(pasta and sauce) for our night in the “Hutel” in Okarito (pop. 30), and then the drive down the fantastic west coast for 90 minutes or so (with a turnoff about 16km before the end of the drive) to our destination.

Okarito is right by the sea, and is home to the Okarito lagoon, an area full of nature. As you can see from the photo, you can look back to the mountains of the Southern Alps also. On arrival in the village, we were given a warm welcome, and shown to our “hutel”, which is a self-contained unit, which seemed to contain more knives than any other implements – they covered about half of the wallspace in the kitchen area – only sleep there in the company of someone you really trust! We were laughed at when we asked where the key was “no-one locks their doors here, if you’re worried, leave things in your car”. We ate our pasta and sauce (I like garlic in my sauce, but clearly not as much as NZ’ers do, since it was outrageously garlicy), and went for a sunset stroll.

Okarito sunset

Sadly, we were so close to mid-summer, that the sun set just behind the headland, but we had a beautiful evening. It turns out the NZ is full (well, perhaps not full, but you see them quite a bit), of couples of our sort of age, also trying to enjoy a romantic walk at sunset – you certainly don’t even get a spot as out-of-the-way as Okarito to yourself. It seems as though many tourists are at the “happily-married-for-a-bit-in-a-stable-job-no-kids-yet” bracket, which sort of makes sense, since it’s expensive to get to, but even more so if you have a family!

Lastly (for now), the ducks in NZ are really big:

Paradise shelduck

We saw this paradise shelduck, with his mate and a duckling the next morning before departure. About the size of a particularly succulent goose!

It’s been a while since I last posted on this topic, and since there is still a lot of the trip to go, I’d better add another day. The last chapter had us getting to Sydney airport for our morning flight to Christchurch NZ. Following our long-haul experience getting to Sydney, a 3.5hr “hop” over the Tasman Sea seemed pretty short. Again we flew with Qantas, this time on a Boeing 737. The flight into Christ Church on the South Island of New Zealand involves flying over the Southern Alps – the snow-topped mountain range which covers a large proportion of the western side of the South Island. More on them in later instalments.

(zoom out to see the full route).

The Hire Car

Our trusty steed

After arrival in Christchurch, it was time to get the hire car. Rather than forking out with Avis or Hertz or anyone like that, I’d decided to go for a more “local” company, Kiwi Direct. The service and contact during the booking process was excellent. However, for those of us who are European and like a bit of formality and “in Ordnung” paperwork, that part did leave something to be desired. To pick up the car, we had to call a mobile number, and we were then picked up and driven to a layby where the handover happened – ie we signed the pink bit of the form, and the driver wrote down my credit card number. The hand-back instructions were given to us, he told us where the relevant buttons and switches were, got out, and left us to it! Having said that, they car worked fine, helped us cover the best part of 3,000km in 12 days, and coped admirably with the numerous excursions down gravel roads. All very excellent.

The Drive to Arthur’s Pass

Our destination for the night was the hamlet of Arthur’s Pass, a township of 54 people,

Heading to Arthur’s Pass

located about 750 feet above sea level in the mountains, and near the summit of the mountain pass of the same name. This was a 140km (90 mile) drive from the airport, the first half of which (in distance, but less in time) is across the Canterbury plain, characterised by long straight roads, and increasing views of the mountains. A lot of the route also follows the tracks of the TranzAlpine railway route from Christchurch to Greymouth. In the second half of the journey, the road winds its way through the mountains, passing soaring peaks, broad river valleys and forested hills. The road was also very quiet, making for excellent driving, although the three gears plus overdrive on our automatic transmission hire-car took some of the thrill out of the hillier sections. In many ways, it was very similar to driving through the European Alps, although the roads here are dramatically quieter.

Arthur’s Pass – the town and surroundings

View from Arthur’s Pass

The township itself consists primarily of a large number of historical buildings (mainly single storey, and made from corrugated metal), a lovely hostel / motel (Arthur’s Chalet) where we were staying (the last two storey building for many miles), and the usual tourist info centre. There is also a railway station on the TranzAlpine, and a lot of walking tracks. We decided to use the advantage of the long evenings of daylight and have dinner before going for an evening stroll. We were advised by the Chalet that their main chef didn’t work that day of the week, and therefore to try the “Wobbly Kea”, which is the local hostelry. This was a great success – proper Alpine grub, washed down with lovely New Zealand wine (a sauv blanc for Mrs T, and a Riesling for me).

Dinner in the Wobbly Kea

A kea is a parrot, endemic to New Zealand, which is the world’s only alpine parrot. We didn’t spot any near Arthur’s Pass, but we did see them close up and in the wild later in the trip. After dinner we took a short walk up to the devil’s punchbowl, which is a rather dramatic waterfall. It was interesting for us to walk through the forest and see such different trees and plants from those we are used to back at home – the beech trees for example have such small leaves.

Next time

The next day involves stunning sunshine, a beautiful blue river, and a tiny settlement at the end of a road to nowhere.

I didn’t choose it
You called my parents to it
You made a place for me
Where I thought there was none
Out of my comfort zone
And into Your calling

‘Incarnational ministry’, they call it
‘Invasion of personal space’, I respond
My house is not my own
My time is other people’s
My life is a sermon illustration
I am to be an example to all
I apologise for things that are not my fault
I welcome in the stranger
I make small talk with anyone
‘Tea or coffee? We have plenty’
Is my battle cry

I smile politely at the personal comments
About my weight
My hair
My intelligence
My family
My life

I will share anything with them
Including my parents
My dog
My sofa
My home
My life
I will share anything with them
Except my mug.

As promised last time around, next stop on the trip was Sydney. Flight time from Singapore was about 7.5 hours, which wasn’t really enough for a solid night’s sleep between Qantas squeezing another dinner into us and them waking us up for breakfast.

Arrival

We were to be staying with a friend in Manly (a nice suburb of Sydney), but it being a summer Sunday, he was engaged to play golf for most of the day, so we would meet him and drop off our kit. He’d promised us that the Syndey summer would not disappoint, and on arrival in the city (early in the morning), it certainly seemed hopeful. Wall-to-wall blue sky, and already 25 degrees by the time we got to Circular Quay (for the Manly ferry) at 8am.

The iconic Sydney shot

Sadly, after meeting with Mr William Duncan Munro IV, on the Manly end of the ferry, and after he had promised us that it’d be short and t-shirt weather all day, things began to change. Which was a shame, since he’d left us for the next six hours, and he had the only keys to the flat which contained all our worldly possessions.It being a Sunday, we occupied ourselves for an hour or two at an excellent Church service at St Matthew’s, Manly, which is the only church I’ve been to which combines having an organ scholarship with having the sort of worship band which has guitar solos in the middle of songs! We received an excellent warm welcome, although it was rather odd singing advent music in the warmth.

St Matt’s, Manly

It was also unusual to see opening stained glass windows – back at home we do everything possible to minimise drafts in our churches!

After the traditional tea/coffee after church the weather had changed completely. Overcast, about 15 degrees, hints of rain, and we still had nearly 5 hours to survive! We decided to take a walk along the strand from Manly Beach (home of the “Manly Life Saving Club”) to Shelley beach. This is clearly a favourite summer Sunday walk for many families and dog-walkers, and it is very beautiful. There is plenty of good local wildlife to see too, from eastern water dragons to rainbow lorikeets. For a photo of the eastern water dragon, see my other site.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Surviving the cold!

The vigorous walk had kept us thermally ok for a while, but we were beginning to shiver, so we decided to use the transport passes to get back on the ferry (hoping that an enclosed space might be a bit warmer) to Sydney. The flat, calm seas had changed somewhat so the crossing was very bumpy, but quite good fun. Sydney is also a very challenging place to get an affordable snack – exchange rates are very bad for us Brits, and food is expensive, and we’d spent virtually all our Australian dollars on the transport tickets – note, always best to research how expensive places are before you arrive with too little currency! After sharing a sandwich and some very good chips with mayo(!) we ventured back onto the ferry, and back to Manly, with only another 45 minutes to shelter from the increasing storm to await keys and warmth!

A day out in Sydney

Monday was our full day in Sydney, and being a working day for Will, we were once again left to our own devices. The southerly had still not passed over, so it remained chilly and moist – we hadn’t expected to have to wrap up warm at this stage of the trip. Indoor activities were the order of the day, so we decided to go to Sydney’s excellent aquarium. This has excellent facilities and really good displays and interpretation of local wildlife, including the quintessentially antipodean mammal, the duck-billed platypus.

Sydney aquarium

I would love to share my photo of the aquarium’s playpus, but, to be honest, it didn’t come out that well! There were also penguins, many sharks, an example of the really rather ridiculous dugong, and of course lots of beautiful tropical fishes. I let my belovèd loose with the camera, and she took some quite excellent photos.

After lunch (on the quayside near Darling harbour – special offer lunches for AU$10 each!), we decided to use our transport tickets to sight-see up one of the arms of the harbour (the Parramatta river), past the Olympic park to see what was up there – not a lot it turned out, although it was an interesting enough trip. Then it was back to Circular Quay, the Manly ferry again, and back for food and “tasty beverages” chez Munro.

Departure

The next morning, our flight required an early check-in (arrival at the airport by about 645). The ferry to town didn’t start up early enough, and we decided that since we had transport tickets, why pay AU$80 for a taxi. We were better than that!

Wobbly Kea

We used the handy local bus route planner to plot a 2-bus+1-train journey to the airport which would get us there in time – there are buses all through the night, and they run on time and are mainly packed with people going to and from the gym it seems. Very successful, and much cheaper!

Following on from my previous post, 12 and a half hours of flying later and we landed, about 1 degree north of the equator in the lovely city of Singapore. Changi airport is (for those used to London Heathrow) a bit of a revelation. Clean, efficient, and only the equivalent of £1 into the city centre on the shiny underground system. Singapore is very free of litter, and the underground trains are a real contrast to those in the UK – you are not even allowed to drink from a water bottle whilst on board, so they are not full of old newspapers and litter.

Clarke Quay Singapore

We had been slightly chicken, and booked a European hotel (the Novotel Clarke Quay). However, this turned out to be right near the centre of the thriving area of the same name – a beautiful spot for eating wonderful local food by the quayside. We had a fantastic meal (the picture on my previous post), and retired to the hotel to bed, having been given a free upgrade to a premium room.

A day of exploring

Hotel window view

The next day dawned bright and sunny, and we were up early (about 6am); owing to the 8 hour time change it felt a bit like mid-afternoon. We had been told about the botanic gardens, and decided to head there before the day got too hot – coming straight from a British late autumn (or winter if you prefer) to 30 degree heat being a bit of a challenge for us (although a pleasant one). We had been warned that in December, Singapore is prone to being cloudy and rainy virtually all the time, so we were pleased to see the Sun during the morning!

Singapore is a very clean city, litter laws are strict, and even the dogs seem to have learnt from this. We saw many dog-walkers in the botanic gardens, and each time a dog needed to do its morning business, the owners managed to get pieces of news-paper down on the ground for the dog to defecate on, to avoid mess in the gardens. Lovely!

In the botanic gardens

For us, the particularly interesting parts of the gardens were those in the original tropical rainforest, and the other tropical plants, since these are so different from home – even the grass in Singapore is different.

Returning from our walk in the gardens – it got too hot – we had agreed to meet a lovely friend for a guided tour. Our friend had moved to Singapore earlier in the year, and was clearly settling in well. After meeting near Marina bay, we had a walk around, and went to “The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands(r)”. This is a large, air conditioned mall, complete with lots of designer shops, and also such things as an indoor canal with Venetian gondolas! The real highlight, in this city of much wonderful food, was lunch at Din Tai Fung, which consisted of wonderful dim sum, and beautiful fruit juices.

Marina Bay area

Raffles

After lunch, is was time for a bit of a walk around, with the main aim of heading for the iconic Raffles hotel, home of the Singapore Sling (a cocktail), to sample one of the same. The odd thing about the Raffles bar is the tradition of customers discarding monkey-nut shells onto the floor, creating a distinctive crunch! It also creates a slight issue with pigeons flying into the bar area! In the end, we thought it a bit overrated for what it was, but the Singapore Sling was very very tasty (if a bit pricey).

Raffles

By now, it was time to wander back to our hotel to pick up the luggage, to bid our friend adieu, and to head back to the airport for our onward flight. All in all, Singapore is a lovely place for a stop, and we would certainly like to go back there, possibly for longer than 24 hours, in the future.